Mayor Bloomberg, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is And Step Up to Be President Obama’s Gun Safety Deputy

Almost immediately after the horrific shooting murder of 27 people in Newtown, Connecticut, by Adam Lanza, New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for President Obama to make stronger gun safety laws a priority in the president’s second term. In a NY post article, the mayor said:

…in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the president’s job “is to perform and to protect the American public.”

Bloomberg has been an outspoken gun control advocate for years. He notes that New York state has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, and New York City the lowest murder rate of any big American city.

The mayor says it’s time for Obama to stand up and tell the country what needs to happen, not go to Congress and ask what lawmakers want to do.

I could not agree more. And Mayor Bloomberg is exactly the right person for President Obama to deputize to lead this effort. Mayor Bloomberg’s track record on well-informed gun safety laws is impeccable. He’s used his bully pulpit as mayor of the nation’s largest city to research gun safety and inform the public as to need for urban gun safety rules that take into account the density of cities versus the wide-open spaces of less populated areas. He understands the various kinds of military-grade fully-automatic weapons and the danger they present when used by those with mental illnesses, which appears to be the situation with Adam Lanza, the Newtown gun assassin.

President Obama should use the expertise and influence Mayor Bloomberg has accrued on this issue to help organize growing citizen efforts, gun owners deeply troubled by the mounting number of massacres, and members of both parties in Congress — like NRA member Senator Manchin of West Virginia — who are ready to act.

If we cannot protect our youngest and most innocent from harm, then how can we call ourselves a civilization?

Please sign our petition calling for President Obama to appoint Mayor Bloomberg to head this effort.